CAMPAIGN 2024: Trump wins New Hampshire primary as rematch with Biden appears increasingly likely
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
By HOLLY RAMER, JILL COLVIN and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump easily won New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday, seizing command of the race for the Republican nomination and making a November rematch against President Joe Biden feel all the more inevitable.
As of 12:05PM CST Wednesday afternoon, CBS News projects Trump with 54% of the vote to Nikki Haley’s 43%. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the race, has 1%. CBS News projects Trump will win at least 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention, while Haley will win at least 9. New Hampshire has 22 delegates at stake.
The result was a setback for Haley, who finished second despite investing significant time and financial resources in a state famous for its independent streak. S
Trump’s allies ramped up pressure on Haley to leave the race before the polls had closed, but Haley vowed after the results were announced to continue her campaign. Speaking to supporters, she intensified her criticism of the former president, questioning his mental acuity and pitching herself as a unifying candidate who would usher in generational change.
“This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go,” Haley said, while some in the crowd cried, “It’s not over!”
Trump, meanwhile, can now boast of being the first Republican presidential candidate to win open races in Iowa and New Hampshire since both states began leading the election calendar in 1976, a striking sign of how rapidly Republicans have rallied around him to make him their nominee for the third consecutive time.
At his victory party Tuesday night, Trump said of Haley:
“Let’s not have someone take a victory when she had a very bad night,” Trump said. He added, “Just a little note to Nikki: She’s not going to win.”
With easy wins in both early states, Trump is demonstrating an ability to unite the GOP’s factions firmly behind him. He’s garnered support from the evangelical conservatives who are influential in Iowa and New Hampshire’s more moderate voters, strength he hopes to replicate during the general election.
Trump posted especially strong results in the state’s most conservative areas, while Haley won more liberal parts. The only areas in which Haley was leading Trump were in Democratic-leaning cities and towns such as Concord, Keene and Portsmouth.
Pat Sheridan, a 63-year-old engineer from Hampton, voted for Trump “because he did a really good job the first time.”
“We need a businessman, not bureaucrats,” Sheridan said.
About half of GOP primary voters said they are very or somewhat concerned that Trump is too extreme to win the general election, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of the state’s electorate. Only about one-third say the same about Haley.
Still, Haley’s path to becoming the GOP standard-bearer is narrowing quickly. She won’t compete in a contest that awards delegates until South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary, bypassing the Feb. 8 Nevada caucuses that are widely seen as favoring Trump.
As South Carolina’s former governor, Haley is hoping a strong showing there could propel her into the March 5 Super Tuesday contests. But in a deeply conservative state where Trump is exceedingly popular, those ambitions may be tough to realize and a home-state loss could prove politically devastating.
“This is just the beginning; we’ve got the rest of the nation,” said Sandy Adams, 66, an independent from Bow who supported Haley. “I think we’ve got a strong candidate, and the first time we have just two candidates, and that’s a great thing.”
On the Democratic side, Biden won his party’s primary but had to do so via a write-in effort. The Democratic National Committee voted to start its primary next month in South Carolina, but New Hampshire pushed ahead with its own contest. Biden didn’t campaign or appear on the ballot but topped a series of little-known challengers.
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
